BREAKING: Councillors vote to permanently remove historic railway crossing

At a meeting this afternoon (Wednesday, January 13), councillors voted eight to three in favour of replacing the Victorian gates with a modern crossing.

This was the second application submitted by Network Rail after their original bid was turned down on September 30, 2015.

The road had already been closed in anticipation of permission being granted. Following the refusal, the rail company deemed it unsafe to reopen the road and it has been closed ever since.

This has caused havoc for local residents and ‘split the village in two’, with some people having to travel for an extra half hour just to get home.

In a bid to get the road reopened as quickly as possible, council officers granted Network Rail temporary permission to remove the gates.

Engineers started work on this last week and Network Rail insist the gates will be removed carefully and stored in a safe place until a permanent place for them is found.

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